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Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Germany's migrant crisis: Refugees committed more than 200,000 crimes last year

REFUGEES in Germany committed 92,000 more offences in the country last year than in 2014, according to official figures.

The leaked report comes just weeks after New Year's Eve sex attacks in the country, which has taken in more than one million people during the current migrant crisis.

Officials also warned of a "growing tend" of terror suspects mingling with genuine refugees.This is the third "Crime in the context of immigration" report of the Federal Criminal Office (BKA) - which is classified for police and civil servants eyes only - but was leaked to best selling newspaper Bild.

It covers crimes by immigrants from January to December last year, a time when hundreds of thousands of migrants poured into Germany.

The data comes from 13 of the 16 states which make up the Federal Republic.

Eighteen percent of the crimes commited by migrants were assaults and robberies - with less than one percent sex crimes.

The number of criminal offences rose to 208,344 - 92 000 more than in the previous year. But the BKA states: "The vast majority of asylum seekers commit no crime."

The number of crimes by immigrants rose in comparison over 2014 to 2015 by 79 percent, the number of refugees increased at the same time by 440 percent.

Crime rose steadily in the first six months of the year but tapered of to become almost stagnant by the end of it, even though more refugees arrived in the second half.

The nature of the offences appears to be mostly minor: 28,712 cases of riding on public transport without paying the fare, 52,167 incidents of forging paperwork in a bid to get money, 85,035 cases of theft, mosty shoplifting - nearly double those of 2014.

Assaults, robberies and what Germany classes as "predatory extortion" and "offences against person freedom," including threatening behaviour, dooubled over 2014 with 36,010 cases, accounting for 18 percent of the crime total.

And sex crimes remain low, under one percent.

Logged last year were 1,688 cases of sexual offences, including against children, including 458 rapes or acts of "sexual coercion."

Hamburg, Bremen and North Rhine-Westphalia, three states governed by centre-left SPD parliaments, did not deliver refughee criminal data to the BKA.

That means the events in Cologne on December 31, when hundreds of women were sexually molested or robbed by marauding gangs of immigrant men, are not included in these statistics.

The report goes on to state that there were 240 attempted murders by immigrants - 127 in 2014 - and in two-thirds of all cases, perpetrators and victims were of the same nationality. One German was murdered, 27 immigrants were killed by other immigrants.

Syrians are officially listed as making up the bulk of asylum seekers - 48 percent - with them being suspected of 24 percent of the crime. Serbians account for two percent of refugees but are suspected of 13 percent of the total number of crimes.

Bild said: "Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis are the largest group of immigrants, but are less frequently delinquent in relation to other groups of migrants.

"Proportionately more offenders were found among immigrants from the Balkans (Kosovo, Albania, Serbia), Eritrea and Nigeria."

As to terror suspects hiding among genuine refugees, the report stated that there were 266 instances individuals suspected of being "fighters and members of terrorist organizations abroad."

Eighty were ruled out, 186 cases are still being probed. The report called the infilration of militants into the country "a growing trend."